I have had two homes that were rented out and I swore I never would do it again. There is not enought space to tell you all the problems and we had contrcts, deposits etc. No way unless they wanted to be hooked up in my driveway-a new twist on a Bed and Breakfast. LOL

I've rented mine out once. It sat still for a small low budget movie. I was present at all times. Even slept in when not filming. Had to wear a wig for a short time to apear as one of the girls while driving the MH. My auto policy has a $500,000 limit. Film company wouldn't take out their own policy so I wouldn't let anyone else drive. The only modifications inside I would allow is different photos in my frames & their own special dishes required by the script. I would never just give anyone the keys to use AS as they see fit.

__________________"Sometimes I wonder if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it." Mark Twain

We'd like to buy a lakefront acreage in northern Ontario and put in full rv hookups (expensive!). I'd rent out the spot to fellow rv'ers for a little more than campground rates, for people looking for a nice spot with full hookups and privacy. I wonder if it would work or is it worth it....

We have a pop-up camper which we use strictly as a rental. The Airstream will never be rented. Renting out an RV is not a casual thing to do, it is work. We have had renters pull in with a compact car expecting to hitch up the pop-up and then argue over the cancellation fee. Other renters will return the unit and say it is clean and maybe to them it was but not to our standards. Then things tend to wear out quicker, mattresses, hinges, furnace switches, light switches, and I am only renting a pop-up. So if you are still considering renting out your Airstream we use an on-line service which is very good and reputable, it is GetRV.com.

We'd like to buy a lakefront acreage in northern Ontario and put in full rv hookups (expensive!). I'd rent out the spot to fellow rv'ers for a little more than campground rates, for people looking for a nice spot with full hookups and privacy. I wonder if it would work or is it worth it....

I'm new here and don't yet own an Airstream, but we are actually planning to rent ours after we buy it. I actually was wanting to have this same discussion to see what experience others have had, as there are clearly people that do rent their AS out on these services. It seems that the replies here are largely negative based on an emotional obsession with the AS, or based on anecdotal evidence of experiences that are not the same as they would be using a peer-to-peer rental service. Millions of people rent out houses and rooms on AirBnB every day, and the positive largely outweighs the negative...and in most cases I see the "rentee" as being the one getting shafted more than the one providing the property.

These new peer rental services already address many of the risks that everyone raises here. They validate insurance, they validate driving records, and they include insurance for the vehicle. I have friends that have done pretty well renting out their obsessive owned cars with GetAround (Tesla Model S, Tesla Roadsters, and other luxury sports sedans/SUVs, etc)...the "drive it like a rental" actually doesn't truly apply here, yeah there are still jerks but most of the time people treat them much more similar to how they would treat their own. There is much more of a personal connection on peer-to-peer transactions, than renting from the Hertz machine with zero care of consideration given to the customer either.

SumsMug, I would look at the other rental services to. Some sites are nothing more than classified ad location for posting rental services and all of the risk and burden is on you (e.g. RentNotBuy). I would suggest looking at Outdoorsy, RVshare, or one of the other options that actually do some of the work for you in exchange for a % cut. They provide insurance, driving record checks, road side assistance, etc to help reduce the burden to you.

Don't be discouraged by those here that obviously haven't actually researched this as they have some deep connection with their AS, which I can understand...but not all of us see many objects as a member of the family, or perhaps more important than members of family in some cases I get it, I just stopped obsessing over things like this. My BMW and Audi are both dirty more often than not, I don't spend every weekend waxing and polishing them...the interiors haven't been detailed in years, and I take them to automated car washes.

We are balancing two ends of a spectrum on our AS purchase, if we want to rent it out a smaller AS is a far better option...a Sport 22 or smaller is light enough that the addressable market is pretty large as they fall within the towing range of a lot more vehicles. The increased luxury elements on a FC23/25 are really appealing on the personal level though, and that new ducted climate control is really impressive and takes the level of refinement up a few notches.

In the longer term we are considering buying a recreation lot that we would place the AS and rent out when we aren't using it, but in the shorter term it would be rent-to-tow.

This is thread was last posted in 2009 so a lot has changed over time. Obviously there is the concept of renting the trailer in a fixed location where towing is not necessary which from my view has the least amount of risk for the owner.

Towing is a whole different manner and it would be interesting to see how a towed rental trailer holds up over time. You've got to deal with tow vehicles, hitches, and the peculiarities of the trailer itself when lashed to your tow vehicle. With the high cost of an Airstream on the front end, I would contend that the high cost of the trailer itself plus the inexperience of the person renting the trailer for towing might lead to some small profit margins when it's all taken into account.

I wonder the Dicky Riegal's Airstream rental business is going? I think he was providing the entire package which was trailer and tow vehicle for rent.

I'm glad to hear you are giving it a go! I'm a big fan of the 'sharing economy'. I travel a lot for work and primarily use AirBnb's. There's a service actually, just like AirBnb for RV owner and renters. May check it out: https://www.outdoorsy.co/

As you may expect, there's mixed reviews. I also consider there are 10-20 positive experiences for every negative review left, as most people just don't leave positive reviews. That said, I prefer to arm anyone with as much information as possible when making any suggestions/recommendations.

What I see as the biggest issue is the common, collective knowledge base between traditional homes, apartments, etc., which is not there for many who might want to rent an RV just to see what it would be like.

There is a specialized skill set we have all had to learn for our rigs, which newbies coming in would not have, and sometimes serious consequences for errors.

Someone familiar with RV's would have a lot of that, needing just specifics for any particular rig, but someone coming in who had never been in an RV before?...I just can't imagine turning mine over to much of anyone, much less someone who just wanted to try it all out.

But, that's me, and if we were all the same what a dull world it would be.

Maggie

__________________
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Wow, I'm not sure how I found this thread from 2009 to bring it from the archives...I can't recall that I found it in a search, just through browsing. I hadn't suspected that I was deep enough to be 8 years in the past, so sorry for the statements that were obviously not recognizing the vintage of the thread

Yes, in 2009 things like Outdoorsy didn't exist so it would have been a very different discussion.

Wow, I'm not sure how I found this thread from 2009 to bring it from the archives...I can't recall that I found it in a search, just through browsing. I hadn't suspected that I was deep enough to be 8 years in the past, so sorry for the statements that were obviously not recognizing the vintage of the thread

Don't sweat it. Thread necromancy is a fact of life, with zombie threads raised from the dead every few weeks. (sorry for the alien smiley, but there's no zombie smiley available here that I can find).

Sometimes it's worthwhile to resurrect old threads to see if they're still valid today, or to see if "conventional wisdom" has changed since the thread died a natural death due to lack of continued interest.

In the case of private owners renting out their Airstreams, it's quite obvious that the general consensus hasn't changed at all on the past eight years. Renting out your Airstream to a stranger might actually be worse than renting out your spouse to a stranger! At least the spouse can say, "No, I won't do THAT!" but your Airstream has no voice of its own to object with when the stranger wants to do something bad with it, or to it.

We have started renting our 2014 AIRSTREAM Interstate out on OUTDOORSY about five months ago; I have rented it about nine to ten times with all really good experiences, with the exception of one renter who backed over a mail box. I struggled a bit getting the rear bumper replaced with OUTDOORSY; then there was a positive turning point where the repairs and payments happened very quickly... So, all and all it has been going well; however it is work. I have a three day minimum which earns me about $1k+ for my troubles; orientation for teaching renters can be from 1.5 hrs. to 3 hrs. long depending on their level of understanding. I encourage all of the renters to text me or call for anything at all in terms of questions; I know my Interstate inside & out, so I can walk them through any issue or question.

I typically see at least one to two rentals per month, and I absolutely require meeting each and every renter prior to renting it out. I want to give them the chance to make sure it is a good fit for them, as well as for me... It gives me a chance to measure whether or not they will be able to handle the vehicle and operate the features and functions of the Interstate.

The first time I rented it out, it felt like I was handing one of my children over to a complete stranger.... IT WAS REALLY HARD TO DO, I WORRIED ABOUT IT ALL WEEK... The renters did have some previous RV experience which really helped.

Summary: My overall experience has been positive, it certainly helps with the maintenance cost of new tires, MB A-SERVICE & B-SERVICE intervals.. and it gives it some exercise rather than sitting in the driveway. I like the feedback aspects of the renter/rental community. I pasted my link in if you wanted to check it out.